Berlin Riesling Diary: Day 7 – Gonzo Wine Journalism Lives!

The world is finally waking up again after Easter / Passover / the holidays and just in time the German edition of VINUM magazine (04/2013, but not in the Swiss edition!) has just published a red hot piece of my gonzo wine journalism. Of course, if you don’t speak German you can’t understand everything, but the 8 pages which describe my 60 days in New York Wine City (NYWC) are still eye popping thanks to the daring of designer Johanna Pietrek. What she did with the mass of photos I sent her along with my stories of how the Petite Arvine grape is about to be planted in the Finger Lakes of New York and my encounter with Brambo at 740 Park Avenue is a small miracle. Thanks also go to editor Stephan Reinhardt for placing this huge a bet on gonzo. The most surprising thing for me is not that this is the most original article I’ve published in years, rather the fact that it is an article which functions so much better in printed form than it does on the screen (even the latest iPad or the Microsoft Surface), because it’s in comic format. And already the reaction to it amongst Germany’s Jungwinzer and young consumers is great, although most of them will only get to see it this coming week.